Evidence of Evolution

By Michael Windelspecht

Evolution from macro to micro - and everything in between!

700,000-Year-Old Stone Tools Point to Mysterious Human Relative
National Geographic
Genographic Someone butchered a rhinoceros in the Philippines hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans arrived—but who? Stone tools found in the Philippines predate the arrival of modern humans
Ravens Are Evolving, and Not in the Way You'd Expect
National Geographic
Weird & Wild Instead of branching into new species, raven groups experienced something called "speciation reversal." 3 Minute Read A new study shows that the common raven is anything but commonplace in
Humans Were Not Smarter Than Neanderthals, We Simply Outlasted Them
Science Alert - SARAH KAPLAN, THE WASHINGTON POST
By the standards of the Paleolithic age, members of Homo neanderthalensis were the height of sophistication. These ancient hominins ranged across …
Sex, disease, and extinction: what ancient DNA tells us about humans and Neanderthals
The Verge - Rachel Becker
Three new studies uncover details about the sex lives of human ancestors, and the DNA modern humans inherited Two new genetic analyses help explain the unexpected roles Neanderthals play in modern human
Ancient Viruses Are Buried in Your DNA
The New York Times - By CARL ZIMMER
In July, scientists reported that a strange protein courses through the veins of pregnant women. No one is sure what it’s there for. What makes this protein, called Hemo, so unusual is that it’s not made
How Do Darwin's Finches Change Their Beak Sizes So Quickly?
Forbes - GrrlScientist
Epigenetics may be how Darwin’s finches rapidly change their beak size and shape in response to sudden environmental changes, such as drought or human disturbance, in the absence of gene mutations Seeing
Yes, humans are still evolving. Here's how you can tell.
Popular Science - By Sara Chodosh
Even more evidence that we’re continuing to change. The nice thing about bacteria is that they multiply really fast. This is inconvenient if they happen to infect, but useful if you want to see how evolution
Aesthetic Evolution In The Animal World
NPR - Alva Noë
At the heart of Richard O. Prum's new book The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World — and Us is a bold idea: "... that animals are not merely subject
Early humans and Neanderthals interbred much earlier than once thought
The Washington Post - By New Scientist
It’s a sex-laced mystery. If modern humans didn’t reach Europe until about 60,000 years ago, how has DNA from them turned up in a Neanderthal fossil in Germany from 124,000 years ago? The answer seems
In Neanderthal DNA, Signs of a Mysterious Human Migration
The New York Times - By CARL ZIMMER
With fossils and DNA, scientists are piecing together a picture of humanity’s beginnings, an origin story with more twists than anything you would find at the movie theater. The expert consensus now is
Ancient humans may have been mothers to some Neanderthals earlier than we thought
The Verge - Rachel Becker
The latest discovery adds another clue to the mystery of human and Neanderthal evolution An early wave of modern human ancestors interbred with Neanderthals between 470,000 and 220,000 years ago, a new
The Mystery of Homo naledi
ricochetscience.com - in Evolution, mammals 0 Updated June 4, 2017
A new human species possessing traits of both ancient hominids and modern humans has been found to have lived far more recently than scientists …
The Evolution of the Superbugs
ricochetscience.com - in Bacteria, Cell Biology, Diseases, Evolution, Immune system 1 Updated February 25, 2017
In August 2016, a woman in her late 20s arrived in a hospital in Reno, Nevada, carrying a particularly deadly strain of the bacteria Klebsiella …
Humans Are Driving a New Burst of Evolution - Including Possibly Our Own
Science Alert - DARREN CURNOE, THE CONVERSATION
The unprecedented impact that humans are having on the planet is well known to us all. Scarcely a day passes by without a media report or two on the …
Fossil of pregnant sea creature changes understanding of how reproductive system evolved
The Guardian - Reuters
Fish-eating reptile Dinocephalosaurus, which lived about 245m years ago, gave birth to live babies rather than laying eggs An extraordinary fossil unearthed in southwestern China shows a pregnant long-necked
Finding the Speed of Evolution in a Study of Bird Beaks
The New York Times - By STEPH YIN
When the ancestors of Darwin’s finches arrived on the Galápagos two million years ago, they gained access to a world of new morsels, untapped by other animals. In a relatively short period, 14 species
Early Meteorite Bits Reveal Clues About Solar System's Evolution
space.com - Sarah Lewin, Space.com Associate Editor
Many meteorites found on Earth are remnants of one titanic solar-system collision that took place more than 460 million years ago. But for the first …
Scientists Just Announced Our Best Shot at Ending Antibiotic Resistance to Date
Science Alert - FIONA MACDONALD
Scientists have developed a molecule that reverses antibiotic resistance in multiple strains of bacteria at once, making it one of the most promising …
What These 3.66 Million-Year-Old Footprints Tell Us About Our Human Ancestors
TIME - By Justin Worland
Newly discovered footprints of five human ancestors that roamed the Earth 3.66 million years ago suggest that members of the Australopithecus …
Proteins Solve a Hominin Puzzle
archaeology.org - NIKHIL SWAMINATHAN
Around 40,000 years ago, modern humans made their way into Europe, sweeping through the continent and, eventually, driving to extinction our close …
Our First Date Out of Africa?
discovermagazine.com
When researchers looked at the genome of a Neanderthal from Siberia, they saw DNA that did not belong. “No matter how we tried to fix it, it didn’t go …
Caesarean births 'affecting human evolution'
bbc.co.uk - By Helen Briggs
The regular use of Caesarean sections is having an impact on human evolution, say scientists. More mothers now need surgery to deliver a baby due to their narrow pelvis size, according to a study. Researchers
London School of Economics
Why Very Smart People Are Happiest Alone
bigthink.com
In a just-published study about how our ancestral needs impact our modern feelings, researchers uncovered something that will surprise few among the …
A Groundbreaking 30-Year Old Evolutionary Experiment Is Still Going Strong
WIRED - Stephanie Bucklin
Early in his career, the decorated biologist Richard Lenski thought he might be forced to evolve. After his postdoctoral research grant was canceled, …
Ebola Evolved Into Deadlier Enemy During the African Epidemic
The New York Times - By CARL ZIMMER
The Ebola epidemic that tore through West Africa in 2014 claimed 11,310 lives, far more than any previous outbreak. A combination of factors contributed to its savagery, among them a mobile population,
Cultivated Carp 'Reverse Evolve,' Grow Scales Back
Popular Science - By Coby McDonald
Undoing hundreds of years of work by hungry monks The dense protective layer of scales covering the body of the common carp makes the fish a pain to eat. But centuries ago, clever European monks managed
Mysterious Branch of Humanity Possibly Discovered
Live Science
A group of humans migrating out of Africa some 40,000 to 70,000 years ago mingled with an as-yet unknown branch of humanity, researchers say. Modern …
Gonorrhea Is Becoming Untreatable, U.N. Health Officials Warn
NPR - Rebecca Hersher
We are running out of ways to treat gonorrhea, the World Health Organization announced today. The U.N. health agency released new guidelines warning doctors that it no longer recommends an entire class
What do aliens look like? The clue is in evolution
phys.org - Matthew Wills
Speculating about what aliens look like has kept children, film producers and scientists amused for decades. If they exist, will extra terrestrials …